Half-Life mod Black Mesa launches after eight-year development

Eight years ago, two independent volunteer teams joined forces
and began work on a project to entirely recreate the whole of the
original Half-Life game within its sequel's upgraded engine. With the launch of the product today, fans will finally be able
to get their hands on a retelling of a story originally released
back in 1998.

Over the years, the team grew to 40 volunteers and the mission to
not just faithfully reproduce the original but look for
opportunities to enhance it without impacting on the original's
strengths. This includes tweaking areas that feel outdated from
gameplay innovations in intervening years and streamlining sections
of the game that just aren't fun anymore.

After an initial teaser
video in 2005, the world had to wait another three years before
it would see a full-length preview of the team's work, accompanied
by new images and concept art. Indeed, for many, speculation rose
as to whether the project would see the light of day at all, due to
the unfortunate but common mixture of over-ambition and lack of
resources that cause many such endeavours to fall.

The team revised an initial 2009 release target to the
increasingly common "when it's done". The finished article perhaps
reflects smart management of the challenge by the team in that it
provides the player with all the levels up until the original story
takes a turn to alien world Xen, which is
towards the end of the original game. With 8-20 hours of gameplay
forecast in this section, it's not an ungenerous package,
especially considering many players were disappointed with the
original's direction after that point.

Although the site's first reaction once the countdown timer
expired was to follow suit and crash, the system files can be downloaded from the official site. The project is also
trending on Twitter, which suggests the current issues may continue
a while longer.

After eight years, however, there's a good chance fans will be
happy to wait just a little longer to for another trip to the Black
Mesa Research Facility.

Edited by Olivia Solon

Comments

This is fundamentally the best argument for the whole restructuring of the consumer games publishing scene. We have seen fan-made content addressing the desire of the core (spend) player base (Valve, DayZ, etc.,) while the publishers seem to spend more time avoiding giving the players what they want than actually supplying a demand.

It is sad that the 'criticism' of the consumer game media has been emasculated with the collapse of their payment model (dependent on publisher handouts). And now we see a console trade that has spent more time on avoiding doing what the players want because they feel they know better. That 'better' sees EA and Activision with amazing debt and failed properties and credibility. And we see a collapse in the studio development system and a hemorrhaging of employees across the board.

Well that's it guys - time to start over again, drop the egos and the ignorance and return to a core gaming initiative separate of the politics and the retail model with all those hidden charges (and kick backs)!